Mistletoe-infested pear tree getting a trim
Last week I wrote about our Bradford pear (Pyrus calleryana 'Bradford') suffering from mistletoe infestation. At that time we were expecting the City to cut down the tree altogether because that’s what they did last year with our other Bradford pear. The remaining one seemed to have much more mistletoe, at least in our eyes, so I considered it a logical candidate for removal.
However, this morning a City tree trimming crew showed up—much to our surprise since we hadn’t been notified. They proceeded to remove all the branches that had mistletoe growing on them. This certainly solves the problem in the short term, but since Bradford pear trees are susceptible to mistletoe infestation, I won’t be surprised to see this problem rear its ugly head again in a few years. I’ll definitely keep a close eye on this tree!
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| Bradford pear last week… |
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| …and today, after all the mistletoe has been removed |
Weird... is mistletoe an invasive species in your area? It's native where I live so I've never heard of the city trying to remove it.
ReplyDeleteYeah, mistletoe is a real problem here, especially for ornamental pears (which were planted by the hundreds, if not thousands, in our part of town). These trees have a tendency to split as they mature, and the extra weight of the clumps of mistletoe (some of them are huge) makes it even worse.
ReplyDeleteThere must have been a lot of kissing going on under that tree!
ReplyDelete